They say it's an export _ Export! _ of services to Iraq, as if a human being is a commodity that can be shipped like light bulbs.

In rejecting my suit in District Court, the judge relied on the initial sanctions law against Iraq of 1990, a response to the limited and specific situation of the Iraq invasion of Kuwait. It was created to limit economic interactions with Iraq. Yet this same law is being applied to humanitarian travel to pre-war Iraq. Under this interpretation, buying food while on such a mission is a crime.

It was very bitter for me to see this happen all over again. And I felt I had to do something.

If people don't go and see it for themselves, these people are in danger of being demonized. I just felt that I could not sit by.

If this happens, Iraq will stay under the control of armed camps. And the government will never control anything.

The question is the morning after. What sort of Iraq do we wake up to after the bombing? What happens in the region? What impact could it have? These are questions leaders I have spoken to have posed.